"Screw it, let's ride" was the ­position Harley-Davidson took when the economy tanked. So said ex-motorcycle drag racer and ­business jet owner Terry Vance, who thinks the cure for general aviation lethargy could be a page out of the motorcycle company's marketing playbook.

"You want to make sure with a race in which you'll be flying home with other drivers that you don't crash into them. It's happened before, and it can make for a little bit of a tense situation."
-Racecar driver Helio Castroneves

Business jets give you better views of the Earth than you can ever get from an airliner. All you need to capture these glorious vistas are a camera and some basic knowledge about techniques. Here are few tips to get you started.

The deep growl of an Audi R8 sidling into the parking lot beside a runway accompanied Helio Castroneves's arrival for our interview at South Florida's Palm Beach County Airport. Turns out the Audi is just one of a stable of hot cars that the three-time Indy 500-winning racecar driver has free access to, thanks to his relationship with car-share club Miami Drive.

Nearly two years ago in these pages, we offered a list of songs that could help set the mood on your next flight (On the Fly, April/May 2009). Since the playing time of those tunes totaled less than an hour, you're probably ready by now for some new suggestions. Here they are:

You examine your bill at restaurants and scrutinize charges before checking out of a hotel, but how savvy are you about auditing your air charter invoice? Unfortunately, deciphering a charter bill isn't easy: no standard charter invoice exists, some simply list a total amount due, and even when charges are broken out, they can be opaque.

If you're in the market for a new business aircraft, the time to buy could be now. The reason is the bipartisan Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010, which became law on December 17. The Act includes 100-percent expensing for tax purposes of investments in capital assets, such as business aircraft, purchased between Sept. 8, 2010, and Dec. 31, 2011.

We reached the top of the 300-foot-high sand dune that dominates the landscape on Bazaruto Island, stopping to let the warm Indian Ocean breeze wash over us and to take in stunning views of sapphire-blue water fanning out in every direction. Our horses stood still in the fading daylight, resting after a plodding ascent to the dune's summit.

HondaJet has completed the first flight of its FAA-conforming advanced light business jet. The aircraft employs the GE Honda Aero HF120 engine, which is more powerful than the Honda-designed and -built HF118 used in the prototype HondaJet. In addition, its production-conforming cockpit features the Garmin G3000 touchscreen-controlled avionics system.

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Quote/Unquote

“What we need to do is always lean into the future. When the world changes around you and when it changes against you—what used to be a tail wind is now a head wind—you have to lean into that and figure out what to do because complaining isn’t a strategy.
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